Linguistic Diversity Symposium

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Symposium on Language Dynamics and Linguistic Diversity in
Anthropological Perspective

Short Title: XV ICAES
Location: Florence, Italy
Date: 06-Jul-2003 - 12-Jul-2003

Call Deadline: 20-Dec-2002

Contact Person: Vesna Muhvic-Dimanovski
Meeting Email: eaa at inantro.hr



Meeting Description:

A symposium on 'Language Dynamics and Linguistic Diversity in
Anthropological Perspective' will be held in Florence, Italy, July 5th -
7th, 2003, under the auspices of the XV ICAES - International Congress of
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (5-12th July 2003). This world
congress is organized every five years and traditionally attempts to cover
the most diverse important aspects of anthropological research including
those related to human languages.

Objectives: As the preservation of linguistic diversity along with that of
species and cultures has become a major concern to many researchers of
various backgrounds it is increasingly evident that the adoption of an
integrated scientific perspective is needed to achieve this goal.
Anthropology lends itself naturally to this kind of work because of its
holistic and multidisciplinary perspective, which helps us to recognize
interrelationships when they exist. Linguistic anthropologists have never
considered language in isolation from the real world but have focused on
the multifaceted relationships between language and both its natural and
social environment, as well as the interaction of the various languages in
contact situations. A broad understanding of language as an open system
affected by outside forces allows interdisciplinary approaches to language
dynamics and change, such as exploring the sociocultural correlates of
language/dialect, contact, vitality or endangerment in the most diverse
situations and regions.

Call for Papers: The symposium will address a wide range of cultural,
social, political, economic and technological issues affecting language
dynamics and change at a global scale in order to contribute to the
definition of factors that sustain the vitality and maintenance of
languages in their environment. Papers by anthropologically informed
linguists and/or linguistically trained anthropologists that explore any
aspect of broadly conceived language dynamics are welcomed; especially
those that focus on cross-disciplinary questions such as the biological
and sociocultural functions of linguistic diversity and other relevant
themes of ecolinguistics, contact linguistics, cultural identity, language
policies and linguistic rights.  The proceedings with the full accepted
papers will be published after the conference by the organizers.

Proposals: Submissions should include the following information: Title of
the paper; your particulars (initials and surname), your address,
telephone number, e-mail address, and fax number, as well as the abstract
of max 250 words. The abstract should briefly indicate the paper's aim,
perspective and findings, and must be submitted and received before 20
December 2002 preferably by e-mail to the organizers of the symposium:

For further information:

Dr. Vesna MUHVIC-DIMANOVSKI
Institute of Linguistics, Zagreb Croatia
Dr. Anita SUJOLDZIC
Institute of Anthropology
Amruseva 8, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Ph: 385 1 4816903; Fax: 385 1 4813777
e-mail: eaa at inantro.hr